Monday Bolts – 1.6.14

OKC drops to No. 4 in John Schuhmann’s NBA.com power rankings: “After scoring just five points (in 25 minutes) over his previous three fourth quarters, Kevin Durant busted out in Minnesota on Friday, scoring 23 of his 48 points in the fourth. And after Reggie Jackson shot 9-for-26 in the Thunder’s two losses, he went for a career-high 27 points against the Celtics on Sunday. The OKC offense misses Russell Westbrook, but it’s still going to have some big nights.”

Brian Robb of ESPN Boston: “Jackson had a career night while filling in as starting point guard for an injured Russell Westbrook. The 23-year-old hit 9-of-12 field goal attempts, including all three attempts from 3-point range, to lead all scorers with 27 points. Boston’s front office was a big fan of Jackson, the former Boston College star, before the 2011 NBA draft. Unfortunately for the Celtics, Thunder GM Sam Presti selected Jackson with the 24th pick in the draft, one slot before Boston’s turn. That night, the Celtics ended up trading for JaJuan Johnson, who is out of the league.”

Darnell Mayberry: “Tonight was a good opportunity for Perry Jones III to play good minutes thanks to Boston’s small ball lineup. He played 21 minutes, scored six points with two rebounds, two assists and one blocked shot. I was most impressed with his two steals. Showed good court awareness on both and used his length to pick off cross-court pass attempts.”

Berry Tramel: “Foreman Scotty paid homage to Perkins’ Celtic heritage by running the opening play for Perk. A one-on-one in the post. Perkins missed a jump hook, but no matter. He made five of his next seven shots, plus a couple of foul shots. Only four times as a Boomer has Perkins scored more than 12. Sometimes Brooks will run an opening play for Serge Ibaka or Thabo Sefolosha, trying to get them involved in the offense. You don’t want Perkins involved in the offense, at least not with an eye on the basket. This was a tribute.”

Jack Winter in a 5-on-5 says Steven Adams is the most surprising rookie: “The league’s favorite Kiwi was a deer in the headlights at times during his lone collegiate season, looking every bit the raw athlete who picked up basketball just a few years prior. But for Oklahoma City? Adams is setting hard screens, showing advanced defensive knack, offensive rebounding like crazy, and stealing minutes from Kendrick Perkins. He’s not only living up to expectations, but easily exceeding them.”

Tom Thibodeau, man. He continues to get the most out of the Derrick Rose-less Bulls even when layer after layer has been stripped away. The Bulls are 4-2 starting with that Christmas Day smackdown of the Knicks, which qualifies as a certifiable hot streak in the modern-day Leastern Conference.

from Marc Stein's power rankings --- pretty sure WE beat the Knicks down.

"That's why Toronto thought about it, and why it might do so again if this run turns out to be fool's gold. The wins in Dallas and Oklahoma City were impressive, but the Raptors caught Oklahoma City on a back-to-back after a draining win over the Spurs."

DSMok1 brought it up on Twitter, but Paul and Durant both with sizable advantages ASPM over James. Paul first in ASPM, Durant first in VORP. Fits with what we've seen so far this season from other metrics (Durant leading the league in PER and WS).

Kevin Durant is scoring at a 32.8 PPG clip since Russell Westbrook went down, but OKC wasn't supposed to be struggling like this -- or leaning on KD this heavily -- in the short term. Which suggests that, no matter how often it's happened since April, maybe you never get "used" to life without Russ.

@ThunderWins we had two unlucky/random loses though, 5-3 without Westbrook, but +5.0 MOV, I think we're clearly worse than Heat, Pacers, Spurs and Blazers without Russ, in the same boat with Clippers and Warriors, 3rd/4th seed in the west.

Presti is amazing. If you redrafted each year with hindsight, every single player outside of Aldrich goes earlier than drafted including he got the best player in three consecutive drafts witholut ever holding the number one overall pick! But my question is, if redrafted today, what number is Onslaught, Lamb, Adams, Jackson and pj3 in their respective drafts?